Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-12-06
The Truth of History

We published on Sunday long
from the New York SUE,
giving the histor. of the San Francisco
Vigilance Committee of 1856. The
article purports to have depended for
its main facts upon the last volume
issued OF IL. III. Bancrofl's "History
Of the Pacific States" We have not
had time to give Barcroft's book a
careful reading, but if the Sun has
caught the tone of its article from the
History" it does not convey a fair
or accurate idea of the public opin-
ion OF the time. A great many
very good and reputable citizens
were opposed to the Vigilance
Committee. 1t is needless to say that
the disreputa BILE class, whose safety
was threatened by that body,
sided with the law and order element
of the community; but to convey the
impression from that fact that all who
opposed the Committee belonged to
the criminal class is far from true.
The reputable citizens who opposed
the Vigilance Committee did SO on
grounds which were proper and
tenable. They said that if the citi-
zens who resorted to the subversion
of established authority for the pur-
pose Of reforming public abuses and
Furnishing crime would acquit them
selves honestly OF their duty as elect
ors and citizens, they could have
brought about the reforms and Sc
curity they sought to obtain by irregu-
lar and illegitimate means. The
criminal class and those who sympa.
thized with them, were but handful
compared with the respectable class.
This was shown by the strength Of the
Committee itself. Instead of para
lying commerce by producing a state
of war in the midst of peaceful COM
munity, they could have righted all
wrongs complained of and secured a
fair, impartial and certain administra-
ton of justice by cheerfully perform
ing the duties pertaining to good citi-
zenship. But these duties were nc
toriously and constantly shirked, and
the disreputable class were left, as
they are to-day in that community, to
run the politics and to pack juries.
Such were the facts which backed
the arguments and justified the oppo-
sition of thousands of as good citizens
as any that were to be found behind
the ramparts Of Fort Gunnybags. 1t
is we'll to vindicate the truth of his
tory, especially when after the lapse
of so many years the annals OF events
are given to the public so partially
colored in work as respectable as
that of Mr.. Bancroft. In the SUMS
article, Yankee Sulivan-one of the
men incarcerated by the Committee,
and whose violent death in their
rooms has never yet been satisfactorily
explained,-is represented as Sgd
ney convict who had escaped to New
Zealand, and from there made his
way to San Francisco when the
gold fever broke out. We merely
allude to this little bit of off.hand BIZ
ography to show one of the many in
accuracies contained in the New York
papers laborious compilation. 1t is
astonishing that the Sun should have
fallen into so gross an error about a
man who, forty years ago, occupied
as large space in the public eye as
his name sake, John L. Sullivan, does
at the present day. Yankee" Sulli-
van, as early as 1912, was at the head
of his profession" in the United
States. He was the champion of
America" nor did he gain that dis
tinction without having to work tor it.
In 1912 he fought Thomas Secor at
Bedloe's Island, in New York har-
Dor, getting away with his man in
l43 terrible rounds. He fought
dozen severe battles after that, each
OF which he won. His fame as
pugilist was second to none, either in
the United States or England. For
years hef re he came TO California in
1862, he kept the well.known sparring
rooms on Chatham street, near the
Sun Office. The errors of the Sun
might be overlooked in California
paper, but they are altogether mex
cusable in pafer from whose files
alone a very trustworthy biography OF
the old man victorious" as he was
called, could be written. Yankee"
was good-natured. simple old fellow,
without sharpness enough in his men
al make up for a Yankee; but he was
| terror in the "ring," and could stand
Up under more and severer punish
nent than ANY man known to the
New York Spirit or to Bells Life.